When was the last time you saw a movie, let alone a kids’ movie, where astrophysics was a key plot component? Originally conceived of by Coco director Adrian Molina, who left the project to be complete by Domee Shi (director of the Oscar-winning short “Bao” and Oscar-nominated feature Turning Red) and Madeline Sharafian (creator of the Oscar-nominated “Burrow”), Elio is a science-fiction journey with the emphasis on the science. Recently orphaned Elio (Kibreab) has been sent to stay with his aunt, Olga (Saldaña), a major with Space Command whose job it is to track space junk. What she doesn’t know is that there are alien forces far beyond the detritus of the commercialization of space, and they have their multiple eyes on Earth. More specifically, on Elio, who has made first contact. Now they want him to be their ambassador to the Communiverse.
Animation fans may notice that, for its 29th feature, Pixar has finally given definitional Pixar voice guy Brad a meaty role as Lord Grigon, the alien warlord who is the film’s main adversary and father to Glordon (Edgerly). Under their spiky armor, their species seems to be part-silkworm, part tardigrade, but under that they’re just like us, as Elio discovers when Glordon becomes his unlikely pal.
It’s admirable that Pixar has produced a profoundly pro-science film. The launch of the deep space probe Voyager provides the film’s real instigating moments, there’s a major subplot about the perils of space junk, and the soothing voice of Carl Sagan discusses the wonders of the universe. However, it’s also a little weirdly pitched, and parents may have to explain to their kids what a shortwave radio is. Visually, there are some moments of cosmic wonder, but there are other moments that are shot so flatly that nothing seems, well, alien.
Much as Elio is about the wonder of the unknown, it’s undercut by its own lack of exploration and boundary-pushing. It continues Pixar’s use of the oddly plastic animation style the studio adapted circa Onward – not quite cartoony, not quite photoreal – that creates a strange dissonance (fortunately, the studio has announced it’s moving away from that style for its next two original films, the kinetic-looking Hoppers and Gatto, which will lean into a hand-drawn effect).
Equally, the directors have discussed how they were influenced in their cinematography by alien encounter flicks of the Seventies and Eighties, including Alien and The Thing, but there’s rarely any sense of peril or danger. Maybe that’s because so much of the story feels rote and familiar. When the alien ambassadors finally turn up, their designs almost feel like the result of a check list, interpreted by talented but hamstrung artists.
And, bluntly, from Star Wars to Pixar to core Disney, the House of Mouse needs to stop leaning on orphans as a narrative crutch. Films like Brave and the Inside Out movies show that they’re more than capable of creating family drama without offing the parents offscreen.
If Elio recalls any Eighties sci-fi, it’s not the big titles. It’s the mid-tier kids’ movies like Explorers and Flight of the Navigator, both of which were also about regular kids making interstellar friends. If that makes it sound like it should have been dumped to Disney+ to wile away boring hours for housebound children, not at all. There is enough of a sense of awe here, and enough scale, that it brightens up the big screen as it stares into the ebony black of space. And if one child is instilled with a sense of cosmic wonder and channels that into a career probing the mysteries and poetry of the night sky, then Elio will have truly reached the stars.
This article appears in June 20 • 2025.
